A friendly tip to Chelsea supporters in search of tickets: DO NOT TRUST THE VARIOUS RE-SELL OFFERS ON THE INTERNET. Particularly now that CFC have gone to barcode tickets that can easily be duplicated.
This is a long time issue in the UK.
Evidence # 1: See above
Evidence # 2: See below; an email received just this week from a dad that got scammed.
Evidence # 3: In fact, we personally have been burned (2006) when purchasing a resold ticket for mid field West Stand for £300 only to have somebody show up outside Stamford Bridge ten minutes before kickoff (50 min late) and had us tickets that turned out to be significantly obstructed view where we couldn't even see the entire far goal. Clearly not what we'd paid for.
Evidence # 4: Recent stories from UK of people printing multiple copies of PDF tickets and then fraudulently selling them. Only the first user gets in.
If you are headed over, we strongly suggest following the appropriate process:
• Chelsea FC (CFC) ticket membership (the old True Blue program without the name) for each season. Current season membership price is £30 on the CFC website.
+ General sale demand is very high and CFC use a 'points' system to prioritize frequent purchasers.
+ Membership for the new season begins each May. Join by mid July and receive extra loyalty points.
• CFC membership + Ticketing Supporter Group membership: When coupled with a membership to an overseas ticketing level supporter group, overseas supporters can purchase legitimately through CFC & that group. Ticketing level Supporter Groups are at the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.
+ Chelsea in America (CIA) has within our coalition five Platinum Supporter Groups (American Heartland, American Southwest, Carefree CA, Mid Atlantic and Southeast) that can assist members with home and away tickets purchased legitimately under the CFC rules.
+ When you join an overseas supporter group, you will need to also provide a CIA membership # each season and the group must manually request CFC to link your account to the group. You can then order via that group depending on the group's policies.
+ You must physically live in the area of a supporter group for tickets; whether part of the CIA coalition or an unaffiliated supporter group in the US. Your address on you CFC membership must be from that area. (Example: A member living in Washington DC cannot purchase through Carefree California; the membership would have to linked to a ticketing level Supporter Group in DC area such as Mid Atlantic Blues.
CIA membership for each new season opens in May with renewal discounts through June. Membership typically closes before Christmas for each season.
• Other ticket options
• CFC Ticket Exchange: This can be tricky as there is very high demand) but you can get tickets at cost and confident of validity.
• Chelsea Hospitality Packages: Expensive but includes meals, drinks and premium seats.
Chelsea in America is not a ticket broker. We are a coalition of 47 US based Official Chelsea Supporter Groups sharing the mechanism to assist member supporters following CFC guidelines. Your tickets are through the CIA member Platinum Supporter Group from Chelsea FC. Best part: No up charge. Price is cost + £2 handling fee to cover mechanism cost.
Consider yourself warned: DO NOT TRUST PRIVATE RESELL OFFERS,
Supporters spend a lot of money to attend a match at Stamford Bridge. Be sure you acquire your tickets through a verifiable entity. It would suck to spend your vacation savings to get locked out.
